Close your eyes and imagine a place where children dance their way into college with scholarships, while overcoming tremendous adversity with poise, grace, style, and a contemporary edge.  You are probably imagining a cheesy Disney show or a movie from the 80s.  Stretch that thought even further and imagine these same students presenting such great art that they are invited to perform at illustrious performance venues like the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in Los Angeles.  No, it’s not a special on Oprah.  These children are real and they are right here in Orange County.  They all belong to the recently renamed The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana.

In its twenty-sixth year, The Wooden Floor is an environment that provides the communities youth with a, “Foundation, support, (and) launch-pad from where our youth are able to receive all that they need to take off.”  Says the artistic and executive director Melanie Ríos Glaser who is a well traveled and accomplished dancer and choreographer with a BFA from the Julliard School.

Over the twenty-six year span, the program has grown from a small pilot program founded by Beth Burns, a former nun, in a basement of a church to a multi-million dollar operation with its own state of the art facilities built in 1999.  This gorgeous facility gives the nearly 400 students of which 98% are of a Latino or multi-ethnic descent and 96% families’ are HUD designated as “Low to Extremely Low Income” an environment they can thrive in.  These students overcome so much adversity to be apart of The Wooden Floor, “Socioeconomic status is a challenge for being here,” says Glaser.  This facility partnered with the programming which keeps dance at the center surrounded by academic and family services gives these students a positive environment free of the outside limitations put on them because according to Glaser, “Everywhere else, they don’t get what they deserve.”

The programming with a now 100% college acceptance and attendance rate for all graduates cannot only be applauded for its academic and social accolades.  Formerly known as St. Joseph’s Ballet, The Wooden Floor has never performed a single ballet, but is at the fore-front of presenting cutting edge contemporary to post modern dance works.  This type of art is why The Wooden Floor is presenting at REDCAT for the second time, the first was in 2005.

“The kind of art they present is the kind of art we are interested in making,” is the reason REDCAT is an ideal setting for these, “…luminous, mature beyond their years, and glorious,” dancers, says Glaser.  Collaborating with choreographers Mark Haim, Nami Yamamoto, and director Melanie Ríos Glaser gives the dancers the opportunity to explore social issues, technical movement, and a more in depth sense of self and community.

All three contemporary works will challenge the audience on the January 15-16^th performances at REDCAT.  Mark Haim’s restaging of Los Angelitos takes an in depth look at overcoming adversity, while Nami Yamamoto’s Flying With My Shooting Stars is an abstracted look at the group dynamic, and Melanie Ríos Glaser’s premier aims to show the more real nuances of the youth performing.  The program will give the audience an overall sense of who the students of The Wooden Floor are and the abounding tenacity of their youthfulness and the strength in the challenges they have overcome.

The Wooden Floor’s evening at REDCAT runs January 15-16, 2010 at 8PM both evenings with tickets on sale for $20 and $10 for students.  Click here for more performance and ticket information.